My Son and Nha Trang

We've had a couple of early mornings and long days.  We got up before the sun to go to My Son just outside of Hoi An, got on an overnight bus to Nha Trang, sort of slept on the bus, arrived in Nha trang around 7am and explored the city.  It has definitely felt like more than two days have passed with all the stuff we did!

Oct 26 – My Son and bus

We were up before the sun to go on our My Son tour, pronounced Me Son. Part of the attempt to draw in tourists for this early morning tour was to see the sun rise at My Son. We didn't get there in time for the sun rise but fortunately breakfast wasn't too bad, eggs and a baguette. We arrived at My Son after the sun had risen but it was nice and quiet with just our group of 20 there. Our guide actually guided us around to the different sites explaining some things as she went. My Son was a Hindu place of worship, it was abandoned by it's Cham builders several hundred years ago. The Vietnamese people pushed the Cham's out of the area. My Son suffered much destruction during the American/Vietnam war. You can see bomb craters in the earth. It's very sad that some of history was destroyed during modern war. There has been some reconstruction of My Son, some before the war. Archeologists still do not know the recipe to remake the bricks or how the bricks were stuck together as no mortar was used. The difference between the bricks is striking. The new bricks are blacked with moss and are much rougher on the surface, while the old bricks have little moss growing on them and are still smooth. It's very cool to see ancient engineering besting modern engineering. We didn't spend too long at My Son but it was enough to see everything. We got back on the bus just in time, it started raining. The rain had stopped by the time we got back to the hotel. We had a little nap, checked out, and got some breakfast. We headed down to the Central Market, something we should have done sooner and checked out pearls, fruit, and food. I picked up my dress, it now fit properly and had the embroidery finished. We escaped the heat by getting some 3000d draft beers and some spring rolls. We wandered Hoi An some more and beaded back to the market for some very cheap food. We bumped into Christina and Mark on the way to the bus and said our good byes. Hopefully we'll get to see them again somewhere. The bus to Nha Trang wasn't too bad. We did have to stop for a bit to change a tire though. At least the bus had A/C when it was running and the windows opened.

My Son

 

 

My Son

My Son - New brick on left, old brick on right

Hoi An River Side

Oct 27 – Nha Trang

We arrived in Nha Trang this morning and surprisingly had actually been able to get some sleep on the bus. I did get to see the sun rise over the ocean. We found a hotel with little trouble, the bus dropped us off in front of it. We weren't all that sleepy so we set off to find breakfast. This was harder than we thought it would be. There are a ton of hotels around us but not too many restaurants. We found a little place selling rice and whatever you wanted on top. I got egg and Beau got squid. It wasn't bad and it was cheap. We rented a motorcycle, again, first we went the Long Son Pagoda behind which was a huge seated Buddha. It was super hot out. Afterwards we headed to the Po Nagar Cham towers. These were built by the same people as My Son but seemed in better condition. There had been 10 towers at one point but not only 4 remain, they were built between the seventh and twelfth century. I like My Son better, it had more character, especially being set out in the jungle, these are right in the city. The Cham towers were very busy with worshipers and tourists. It was only noon so we set off to find Bai Dai Beach, a nice beach 20km south of Nha Trang. We actually found it with only a little bit of driving around. It had beautiful white sandy beaches and minimal tourists. We went for a dip to cool down and then got some lunch. We had BBQ clams, crab and noodles. Yum! We hung out on the beach for a bit and then went swimming again. There were some good waves to play in, a few people were surfing. It was fun just bobbing around. We dried off and headed back into Nha Trang. We got cleaned up and headed out for some dinner. We had seafood hot pot. It was delicious. The staff seemed to think we didn't know what we were doing so they dumped all the food into the hot pot for us. We were going to cook stuff as we ate it but apparently that isn't right. It turned out very nice though.

Big Buddha

Cham Towers

Cham Towers

Bai Dai Beach

mmm Sea Food Hot Pot

Now for some Non-Adventure

The past two days have been pretty sedate/boring.  We did a lot of traveling and waiting around to travel.  The past 3 nights have not had us sleeping in a proper bed or with a nice hot shower.  One of the best things about arriving in Hue today was having a hot shower, granted the pressure sucked, and a comfy nap in the nice bed.  Tomorrow should be much more interesting with a motorcycle tour of the area around Hue.  We are also contemplating riding between Hue and Hoi An!

Oct 20 – Hanoi for the Day

We arrived back in Hanoi without incident around 5 or 6 am. We trekked to the Backpackers Hostel and borrowed their internet. We may have also borrowed breakfast too! We killed a few hours updating and eating. We left our bags with their luggage storage and set off for the military museum. Unfortunately it closes for lunch between 11:30 and 1:00 we decided we were not meant to see this museum. We wandered by where Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum is, he's in Russia getting a face lift currently. We also checked out the One Pillar Pagoda which was quite pretty. We found some lunch and then wandered over to the lake. We had been told about this ice cream place called Fanny's near the lake and they make all their own ice cream. We split a sundae that had green tea, chocolate, and coconut ice cream as well as well as coconut, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was delicious. Today was also Vietnamese Women's day and the owner of the restaurant was handing out roses to all the women. We headed back to the hostel to kill time before we had to catch our bus. Finally 5:30 rolled around and we headed to the bus. We had never been on a sleeper bus before and were not sure what to expect. It didn't really live up to any expectations. It was similar to a double decker Greyhound but your feet are underneath the bed/seat in front of you. It was not comfortable and there was no bathroom on board. I definitely prefer the train but this is much cheap so c'est la vie!

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

One Pillar Pagoda

Oct 21 – Hue

We arrived in Hue around 7am. I did not sleep well, I don't think anyone did! We were dropped off in front of the Hue Backpackers Hostel, same as where we stayed in Hanoi, but we wanted to look around a little since a double bed in a dorm was $9. There were all sorts of guys outside the bus trying to get you to go with them to see their hotel. We started talking to one pair and set off with them to check out their hotel which was $10 for a private room, it was only a block away. We arrived but they didn't have a room available yet for us to see, so they took us to another place which we had to wait while they cleaned the room before viewing. The room was okay but we thought we would keep looking. We checked two more places, the last one said rooms were $15, $18 and $25 but we could have one for $10 just not to tell anyone. The room was very nice, had the best beds too I think, although the water pressure left something to be desired. We got clean and had a nap. After napping we felt human again and we went looking for somewhere to eat. We found somewhere that was reasonable. Turns out many restaurants are coupled with tourist agencies. We talked to a guy that runs his own motorcycle tours and were very interested in a Hue tour as well as possibly a Hue to Hoi An ride. We walked down to the river front to discuss our options and budget. While there we were approached by a man selling scenic Vietnam paintings that he apparently did himself so we bought one since they seemed quite reasonable (turns out we could have paid a little less but 25 cents isn't a big deal). We walked to the market and picked up some fruit. We enjoyed some two for one beers at the Backpackers Hostel, just because we aren't staying there doesn't mean we can't take advantage of their deals. While there we ran into two guys we met in Beijing, sadly they were about to hop on a bus to Hanoi so we only talked with them briefly. We went back to see the motorcycle tour guy and booked for a Hue day trip tomorrow. We had a nice meal and headed back to the hotel for an early bed time.

The Market

Mmmm garlic